Device

In this hybrid documentary, the Oregon filmmaker follows a middle-aged Japanese man and his youthful female student on a trip through the Southwest. The fictional narrative, which was invented by the couple in separate interviews, questions the surface truth of the film’s circumstances while perhaps pointing to a greater truth in the pair’s relationship. The man declares he is an Indonesian forest-dweller who can understand what animals are saying, while the girl claims to be a cyclo driver from Myanmar. The travelers take pictures and roam the empty landscapes of Utah and Arizona, until the girl mysteriously disappears. With a unique jazz score by percussionist Dave Storrs, this delicately structured sketch leaves a haunting question mark and a vivid sense of longing and loss.